Nyjer Morgan and Wilson Ramos are in the Nats' lineup today at Turner Field.

Nyjer Morgan is back with the Nationals, activated off the 15-day disabled list this morning and hoping to pick up where he left off when he was sidelined. The center fielder was hitting .311 with a .366 on-base percentage and 10 stolen bases (two caught stealings) over his last 20 games.

This hasn't been announced yet, but I'm pretty sure Morgan will be taking Josh Willingham's roster spot, with Willingham going on the DL (presumably for the remainder of the season) with that nagging left knee injury that will likely require surgery in the coming days. It's an unfortunate and abrupt conclusion to what was shaping up as the best season of Willingham's career. (UPDATE AT 11:06 A.M. — Willingham has officially been placed on the 15-day DL with a medial meniscus tear in his left knee.)

— Adam Dunn gets a rare day off, perhaps because he's got bad career numbers against Derek Lowe (6-for-31, two walks, eight strikeouts). Michael Morse gets a rare start at first base in his place.

— With Dunn and Willingham out, Ryan Zimmerman (who last night was ejected for the first time in his career) bats cleanup. Needing a 3-hitter, Jim Riggleman is going with Roger Bernadina (first time Roger has hit there in his brief career). Bernadina also takes over in left field, which is where I suspect he'll play most of the time the rest of the way.

— Congrats to Wil and Yormarie Nieves, the proud parents of a baby girl. Maria Isabel Nieves was born yesterday at 5:28 p.m., and everyone is doing well. Wil should be rejoining the team in the next couple days.

I'm not in Atlanta for this series, but I may post some thoughts along the way as this game plays out. I will be in Philadelphia, however, so full coverage returns all weekend…

Man, that's a scary lineup to go with against Lowe. Good thing Lowe does not have dominating numbers like Hudson did against us. We might have a shot if our offense can not ground into double plays all the time.

So the day after Bernie throws out Prado at 2B, demonstrating the best arm among today's OF starters, Gentleman Jim starts him in LF. And Mark tells us Bernie'll probably be starting in LF the rest of the way. Nyjer started more games in LF than in CF in Pittsburgh, but I guess our brain trust is still invested in him as the CF. Inconvenient evidence to the contrary must be ignored.

Man, suddenly this is starting to look like a run for next year's #1 draft pick.Please, please, please God, let the Nats win at least one game in Philly this weekend and shut those fans up, if only for a day.

There is absolutely no reason to start Morgan in CF and Benandina in Left short of Tony Plush's over extended ego. He wouldn't play at Harrisburg after being embarrassed at the plate in both Hagerstown and Woodbridge. I can't wait till he's jettisoned in the off season.

JayBProgress = Strasburg, Storen, Ramos, Espinosa (almost ready), Marrero (1 year away) + best draft class in the major (opinion of independent analysts not mine). This team won't get built the Yankees way because they don't yet have the minor league assets to convert to major league talent and they are not about to spend $200 mil on payroll. Your quick fix ideas failed miserably in Baltimore; they signed: Palmiero, Millwood, Tejada( twice)et al and where are they now?

Progress = Strasburg, Storen, Ramos, Espinosa (almost ready), Marrero (1 year away) + best draft class in the major (opinion of independent analysts not mine).Amen. But add: Zimmermann (less than 2 weeks away)Off topic: who is that guy who got 13K's and no walks last night for Harrisburg?!?

@ Anonymous 1159amUmmm..the Yankees built there core from within during their past and current playoff and championship run:Jorge PosadaAndy PetitteDerek JeterMariano RiveraRobinson CanoJoba ChamberlainPhil HughesSure they have added key cogs through free agency but so did Cox and Kasten in Atlanta

That lineup is an embarrassment to the organization. All nine guys put together barely have more home runs than Jose Bautista. is this really the team we have going forward? Are we really looking at 95 losses this season after a 25-20 start? God, is that depressing or what?That said, I'm looking forward to seeing Wilson Ramos in action. Good luck to him. It's a pleasure to have him on board.

Bowdenball, Somewhat; because in order to acquire stars in trades you need more than money; you need MLB ready prospects. They offered Monterro for Cliff Lee. Say we were willing to take on Cliff Lee's salary on a rental basis; who could we have offered them in a trade?

If they put Willingham on the 60 day DL now to free up a 40 man roster spot, they'd just have to cut somebody from the 40-man at the end of the season anyway because the 60 day DL goes away then and those guys need to be put back on the 40-man roster. (I'm not sure when the exact deadline for this is, but it's before the Rule 5 draft in December.) So with no pressing need right now to make room on the roster for someone, there's no need to move Willingham to the 60 day DL.

Anonymous 1:23:Pretty much all the guys I mentioned were FA acquisitions, not trades. Cliff Lee's not a Yankee because someone else could offer better prospects. A-Rod, Teix, Sabathia, Burnett, Vasquez and Swisher are Yankees mostly because nobody else could offer more money. Without those guys, Cano is Ryan Zimmerman: an awesome homegrown talent on a terrible team.Speaking of that team … is it just me, or does it seems like every time we throw out what looks like our absolute worst team on paper this year, the guys surprise us with a strong effort? So far so good in Atlanta.

Bowdenball,Not just Cano; also Jeter, Posada, Gardner, Hughes, Petite and Rivera. I don't remember all the names but they do seem to have a regular stream of talent coming up through their system. They traded Austin Jackson to get Granderson and Melky Cabrera to get Vazquez; not necessarily great trades but my point is that they have the talent to pull off trades when they need to.

@ Anon 2:03, you can not deny the fact that Yankees bought the last world series with mainly free agent acquisitions of Tex, CC, AJ, etc.@ game, we are doing pretty well right now. I hope Lannan and co can keep that up.

Anon 2:03:Of course they have players who came up through the system or were acquired in trades. Just not many good ones- Cano, Rivera, Hughes Gardner are the only good non-FA players on the 2010 Yankees. My point is that if their team was comprised of players who came up through their minor league system supplemented with an average or even an above-average MLB free agent budget, they'd be absolutely terrible. They are not a club comprised solely of free agents, but their "core" is clearly comprised of free agents. They'd suck without that core. They're really good because they have money to burn, bot because they're skilled at scouting and developing talent.

BQ,No doubt, all I,m saying is that you can't buy a championship team without also having internal assets; JayB et al want us to go spend big bucks before we are ready to and I,m saying that this is a waste of resources. Build a foundation; make excellent below the radar trades (Capps for Ramos); sign medium great value FA's to stay competitive; flip expensive assets for valuable prospects. (for a blue print check out the Tampa Bay Rays). When you get to a point where you have multiple exceptional talent at the major league level you augment that with top of the line expensive free agents to get over the top. As for Lannan today; doing well but may want to consider pitching ahead in the count once in a while. Ramos has had 2 good at bats even if he's 0 for 2.

i have noticed that our 'young' players like morse, bernie, etc are not much patient at the plate, with runners on base especially. They try to go deep on the very first pitch of at bats. We don't advance runners on such plays but lose an out too.Anyways, we have a good lead of 4 now after Bernie and Zimm delivered. Let's keep at it.

Bowdenball, Really? Jeter is not good? You wouldn't take Chamberlain for the Nats? Robertson not real good? 2 Major league ready catchers in the minors; the Detroit starting center fielder (Jackson) whom they flipped for Granderson. I wish we were so bad at player development,

Anonymous said… "@ Anonymous 1159amUmmm..the Yankees built there core from within during their past and current playoff and championship run:Jorge PosadaAndy PetitteDerek JeterMariano RiveraRobinson CanoJoba ChamberlainPhil HughesSure they have added key cogs through free agency but so did Cox and Kasten in Atlanta"And the first 4 in your list were re-signed by the Yankees as free agents (or about to become free agents) and make a combined $62 million. Just saying "built from within" regarding these 4 is misleading.

@N. CognitoMisleading or not, those were home grown Yankee players. Look at the Red Sox teams that won the two World Championships. How many of those players came through the Red Sox system? Very few. Fewer than the Yankees I would care to bet. People always critize the Yankees for buying a championship, but they are doing nothing that any other team has done.

Anonymous 2:45:That's correct. 2010 Jeter is not anywhere close to good. Nor is Chamberlain. If you don't believe me, check their numbers.Obviously they have some homegrown talent, just like any MLB team. Obviously they have talent they traded for with homegrown talent, just like any MLB team. The point is, that talent, plus a standard FA budget (say maybe one of Teix and Rodriguez, and then swap out the FA pitchers for one mediocre starter), would make for a truly terrible 2010 team. They're better than the Nats because of what they can spend, not because of how they draft and trade and develop.OK, I'm done talking Yankees. I was willing to go along while it was helping our boys, but now the tables have turned. Go Nats! Let's hope the bullpen can hold off the Braves.

Bowdenball, I checked the numbers; Jeter has an 840 career OPS at short stop; 1st ballot hall of famer. Chamberlain is screwed up in the head but still has an electric arm which every team in the major would love to have. When you start talking nonsense maybe it is time to end the conversation.

I didn't mean for this to become a debate on the Yankees; as far as I,m concerned they can go to h**l. What I,m saying is that if the Nats were to increase their payroll by say 20 million by signing 1 or 2 big name free agents it wouldn't make them instant contenders and I argue that it would be a negative process because you are taking money away from other avenues which can make you better, sooner and make your success more sustainable for the long haul.

Good win guys!! Nice pitching performance by Lannan, Peralta, etc and I can't believe it but we beat Lowe with this lineup. Congrats to Willie on raising his average to .180 and earning one OF spot in the lineup for the rest of the season. 😛

Great game today!This organization is way behind due to Loria and mlb. Many more good drafts will be needed to restock bottom to top.FA efforts have increased under Rizzo, the Lerners stepped up in going after Tex and I imagine it will continue as the supporting cast improves.

Anon at 3:46: thanks. It's so easy to sound like an "expert" by trashing players' abilities. I'm glad you responded with the facts. And we got a curlie W! Thank you to Willie for a great game, and Lannan for some solid innings, and Nyjer for hustle, and Ramos for that smart play at third, and the umps for not throwing out any of our guys today.

Anon 4:02-Another $20 million might not do it. But $120 million would certainly do it- that would solve any team's problems. So maybe the Yankees weren't the best choice of an analogy?The answer for the Nats is probably somewhere in between. I think the team is close to being a competitive one, but there's obviously a huge problem with offense outside of the middle of the order. That's problem can be fixed by spending a little money, which would give us a quality team and maybe even a contending team while we wait for the minor league system to come around. We're still a little ways away on that one.Anon 3:46-I've been talking about the 2010 Yankees from the start. Of course there's no doubt Jeter was a great baseball player. There's no doubt that past Yankee teams were built around a core of homegrown talent. There's also no doubt that neither of these things is still true in 2010.

OK. I'll back off Willie Harris for a day or so. But I still have problems with Kennedy.As for tomorrow, has there been a bigger mismatch than Roy Halladay vs. Jason Marquis?Here's hoping for a miracle.

Bowdenball, The Mets are at $120 mil; doesn't look too good for them this year or really for the foreseeable future. Their problem is that they sign players for 6 year contracts and as they decline they no longer have the flexibility to change course. No one wants their expensive under achievers so they are stuck playing them regardless of production (Oliver Perez anyone?). I've heard that Adrian Gonzalez will be looking for an 8 year contract when he becomes a FA at the end of next year; I love Adrian Gonzalez but at the end of his contract he will be 37 years old. Any bets on how years 5,6,7,8 turn out? At the end of this year I would be interested if you can point out to me which free agents we should pursue. Why don't we table the discussion until then. There is a lot of general 'The Lerners are cheap' comments posted but why don't we focus on specifics when these come into focus?

I just watched some of the highlights of the game and must admit that we were very lucky to win this one. McCann's line drive in the bottom of the 8th was at least a double if it wasn't right to Morse. And did one of the commentators call Willie 'Georgia Peach' after that home run? LOL, Cobb must be turning in his grave.

This organization is way behind due to Loria and mlb. Many more good drafts will be needed to restock bottom to top.You can say that again. In fact, it'd be more accurate to say that the entire organization was royally scr3wed for years thanks to them. It's takes years to recover from something like that. Having drafts like last year and this helps, but it takes time for those diamonds in the rough to make it to the bigs.As for spending money, folks up above are right: you need to spend money, but you need to spend it at the right time. Spending $50 now to get two stars that will bump us up from last place to 4th place is just a waste of money in the long run, and a lousy strategy in the short run — particularly if that money can be used for many more wise investments, that might pay off in trades later (e.g., Capps), etc.

The Nats are 52-69. Last year the Nats won their 52nd game one week before the end of the season. They were 52-103. They won their last 7, as we all know. They've got something like a rotation at the moment. They're hitting a little. Billy Ripken said today on MLB TV that contending teams won't want to be playing the Nats down the stretch. Hey, that's progress (I keep telling myself)!

Can someone explain to me what the merit is in placing Willingham on the 15-day DL instead of the 60-day DL?This is just Mike Rizzo doing his due diligence as he should. He will wait until the last possible moment to DL Willingham. He wants to wait and see who should be added to the 40-man … there are a lot of possible moves that can happen between now and September 1st and beyond that could affect the makeup of the club post-extended rosters. That will be a critical time for the last place Nats. Then is when they need to decide who they need to look at for next year in the majors as opposed to the Arizona fall league, or winter ball. This winter will be an interesting one for the Nats. It seems doubtful they will stand pat. This roster appears to be headed for a decent amount of turnover?

@Bowdenball,Another $20 million might not do it.This is Jim Bowden we have now "Bowdenball"? Adding 20 million to the payroll would almost certainly guarantee a winner given Mike Rizzo and the excellent staff he hired? That would push the payroll from 65 million to 95 millon. Plenty. Much more than the Rays, Marlins, and Rangers and they are winning. The only caveat might be Riggleman.

N. Cognito said… And the first 4 in your list were re-signed by the Yankees as free agents (or about to become free agents) and make a combined $62 million. Just saying "built from within" regarding these 4 is misleading. You MUST be kidding…your definition of homegrown in under a cheap contract, are you saying when we resigned Zim he was not longer home grown!? Your argument makes no sense! ALL of those players were brought up in the Yankees system, not some gun for hire…my point is that the Yankees started their return to glory with the return of their minor league system AND some free agents signings…read the SportsBog and see what Bowden says…he is 100% correct, spend now to guarantee success in the future…pay Carl Crawford 10% more than he is asking for we need another OF, open the checkbook and re-up Dunn for 3 or 4 years…a team on the cheap = the Pirates and the Royals!

Watching the rerun on MASN. So nice to see this game again. Lannan looked good and resting Dunn worked out. Morse is swinging so much better the last 2 days. How did he get his swing so out of sorts the 10 games before this series?

Anon at 8:24 Are you kidding me? you are quoting Jim Bowden? He of Castilla,Guzman,Guillen,Milledge,Duges? The same one who gave extensions to Dimitry Young, Belliard, Guzman? The same one who drafted Crow in the 1st round and then failed to sign him? Well, there's a great source for you. Notice how all 32 major league teams are lining up to hire him to run their teams. The Rays payroll for 2010 is 80 million, the Twins are @ 85 million so don't tell me that you can't compete at these levels. The mets and the Cubs are well over 100 and they are winning bopkes.

OK everyone. This isn't an over night process. let's give credit where credit is due. The first increase in budget for the current management was in scouting and player assessment which was badly needed. The next expenditure was in the Dominican set up which has been greatly upgraded. The return on these investments will not be apparent for a couple of seasons, however this years draft should be an indication of the potential for creating pipeline of young talent in the near future.Next will be the gradual increase of the major league payroll by investing in near term improvement such as Dunn or Pena or Gonzalez and possibly a second baseman as a stop gap until Espinosa or someone else steps up.This is by far and away the best approach to becoming a viable contender on an annual basis and I am both patient and excited.

Some said…my point is that the Yankees started their return to glory with the return of their minor league system.This is the BIGGEST misinformation about the Yankees ever. You hear how Posada, Riveria and Jeter were "home grown". Guess how many of those guys where drafted, one – Jeter. The other were international free agent signings where money wins. The difference between the Yankees and other team, is the Yankees sign a ton of these guys and if they fail, they fail. Yet a team like the Royals would have a major set back if one of these bonus guys didn't pan out.